When Katy Smith tells people she’s going painting in Orcutt, she gets puzzled looks in return.
While it’s still here
To view and purchase paintings by Katy Smith, visit her website katysmithartist.com. She’s active on Instagram @katy_smith_artist and Facebook @katysmithartist. Find her work at Art Center Morro Bay, Costa Gallery in Los Osos, and Orcutt’s Steller’s Cellar.
“They’re like, ‘Where do you paint in Orcutt?’ As if there’s not something here to paint,” Smith said. “There are so many beautiful places in Orcutt to paint, and you just have to stop long enough and take it in and realize how pretty it is where we live.”
Often people’s next thought is that she must be painting a sandy saltwater scene, which is pretty, Smith admitted, but so are the other sites she scouts.
Her 9-by-12-inch pieces are done in plein air, all in one sitting, because Smith feels “it’s just not very inspiring” to paint inside a studio. One Thursday morning in March, Smith and a friend painted at the corner of Hummel Drive and Foster Road in Orcutt near the Richards Ranch site. There was a light breeze, and the birds were chirping.
One of her goals is to paint scenes that may soon disappear, like Mud Lake, a neighborhood basin that may be developed into a soccer complex, Smith said. But her latest project is documenting the pre-development landscape at Richards Ranch in Orcutt, a controversial housing and commercial project that moved forward through the county last year. Smith and fellow artists go to the site periodically with their canvases and paints, not to take a side on the matter but to record scenes that may not be visible in the future.
“It’s been quite the controversial subject here in Orcutt, so we’ve been going over and paint[ing] there for the last eight months to try and capture the views of the beautiful eucalyptus groves and trails and such that are in that area before it’s gone,” Smith said.
On top of the seasons changing, Smith’s paintings of Richards Ranch also depict the start of the stoplight installation at Hummel Drive and Union Valley Parkway. Now that construction has started, it’s not as peaceful. Smith said that after more than a dozen completed paintings, her project is nearing its end.
“I want to make sure that the images are preserved of what the area looked like before we change them, … from being just a natural environment to putting high-density housing or tearing out all the trees,” Smith said.
The artist said 99 percent of her work is done with oils out in the field after scouting locations at different times of the day to find the perfect lighting. Landscape paintings are the “pinnacle of art” in her eyes. Smith revels in experiencing nature in the moment through her creative process.
“I get to focus in on all those little details,” Smith said, “and really feel the location and be able to put that on canvas and take it home with me.”
To start her plein air mornings, the painter brings her breakfast and a Frappuccino on a stroll while she picks her subject. Passersby often stop to chat with Smith because it’s unusual to see someone painting outside in Orcutt.
One of her favorite parts of the job is meeting others from the community that she loves so much. Some are artists themselves or enthusiasts who are curious about Smith’s work, often glad she’s recording the natural landscape before it’s gone.
Her next step is toning the canvas. Then she jumps right in, unlike some painters who sketch and conduct a color study before putting brush to canvas.
“Most of the time it works out,” Smith said. “I feel like I have a pretty high percentage of paintings that I’m happy with when I’m done with them.”
Smith shows her work at Steller’s Cellar in Orcutt, the Wine Merchant Café in Los Olivos, Art Center Morro Bay, and Costa Gallery in Los Osos, which was a gallery she joined when she first pursued art professionally after raising her four children.
“I always knew that there was an artist in there, I just hadn’t put the time into it,” Smith said.
After a career teaching elementary school, Smith started to lead art lessons out of her home. She taught all kinds of media including animation, claymation, graphite drawing, and watercolors. She learned everything as she went, which was how she rediscovered her love for painting around eight years ago.
It began with watercolors. A friend asked Smith to teach her daughter watercolor painting, so Smith bought her first set of watercolors at the craft store and ended up falling in love with it.
Soon after, she visited a gallery in Old Orcutt, which she said doesn’t exist anymore.
‘I want to make sure that the images are preserved of what the area looked like before we change them.’
—Katy Smith, painter
“I wanted to see a watercolor painting in person because I didn’t know what they were supposed to look like and wanted to make sure I was doing it right before I taught this class,” the artist said.
A gallery attendant invited Smith to show her work there, but the new painter couldn’t believe it.
“I laughed at her and told her that I wouldn’t be doing that because I just started painting this week,” Smith recalled.
Nearly every day for the next year Smith worked on her paintings. She said the gallery encounter inspired her to continue growing as an artist, and she sought to learn a new skill on every canvas. Through YouTube videos, online courses, and self-evaluation, Smith charted her path toward becoming a professional artist.
The first piece she offered to the world was completed in the spring of 2020. She was confident the painting of Old Orcutt Market would sell. A few hours after posting it on Facebook she received three offers.
Since then, she’s made many more paintings and learned a lot more about being a professional artist. It’s all-consuming, she said, and everywhere she goes she’s thinking about putting a certain scene onto her canvas.
On the day in March that she painted the intersection of Hummel and Foster, Smith had a painting in her car ready to ship out to a buyer. It was a piece from the Richards Ranch series. The buyer went to high school with Smith, but he’d since moved out of the state.
He wanted the painting because he remembered riding his bike through Richards Ranch to school, before there were any plans to turn the land into anything else. ∆
Reach Sun Staff Writer Madison White, from New Times’ sister paper, at mwhite@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Spring Arts Annual 2026.